Science for the 21st Century
Department of Energy,
Office of ScienceRespond to the Nation’s Challenges with Timely,
Innovative Approaches
The Department of Energy (DOE), as a science agency, overcomes complex technological challenges for which there are no obvious solutions. Our challenges are the Nation’s challenges – to protect our citizens, discover ways to ensure clean and abundant supplies of energy, clean the environment and advance the science and technology base that produces results. When America was attacked on September 11, 2001, our programs immediately responded by identifying research needs that would reduce the nation’s vulnerabilities by redirecting research efforts and by providing technologies that detect, deter and mitigate potential attacks.
DOE technologies were used to clean Congressional office buildings contaminated with anthrax. Our technologies currently monitor New York City for silent and invisible signs of chemical, biological or nuclear attack. DOE technologies have also improved the energy efficiency of countless industrial and domestic applications, saving billions of barrels of oil and improving our economic competitiveness. Our monitoring and clean-up technologies are protecting the environment and helping to repair the damage done during the Cold War. We initiated and continue to play a key role in climate change research including investigating ways of sequestering the carbon dioxide from fossil fuel use.
Our nuclear medicine research and isotopes have resulted in tens of millions of medical procedures each year. Medical applications of DOE technologies and research techniques have greatly improved medical diagnosis and saved countless lives. Recent examples include a radioactive isotope, Astatine-211, that has shown promise against one of the most lethal forms of brain cancer and the use of functional MRI and PET to understand addiction.
